Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Smart lockers are becoming a key part of the modern campus dining experience, and Ashley McNamara, vice president of global marketing at Apex, says the shift to fully digital dining halls is driven by student expectations for speed, convenience, and mobile-first experiences.
In a conversation with CampusIDNews, McNamara explains how Apex’s smart locker solutions fit seamlessly into higher education dining ecosystems, helping campuses modernize food pickup without adding friction to back-of-house processes.
McNamara says today’s students expect dining to mirror the convenience they experience off campus. Apex’s smart lockers connect directly to mobile ordering platforms – such as Grubhub Campus, Transact Mobile, Tacit – allowing students to order ahead, receive notifications, and grab their meals without waiting in line. Because the mobile ordering solutions integrate with transaction system providers, meal plans and declining balance payments come out-of-the-box.
Lockers connect directly to leading mobile ordering platforms, and because they integrate with transaction system providers, meal plans and declining balance payments come out-of-the-box.
The result is a predictable, fully digital experience that lets students pick up food on their schedule and move on to their next class or social activity.
Apex works closely with institutions to tailor locker deployments based on order volume, peak times, and space constraints. McNamara explains that some campuses may only need a few compartments while others may need dozens across multiple locations.
At Rider University, students can only order through the Grubhub app to place the orders for Jersey Mike's and pick up through the lockers
“We look at all that data and then figure out what the right hardware is for that customer,” she says. Solutions can be installed indoors or outdoors, and Apex recently introduced a modular system with varying compartment sizes that allows campuses to expand over time as dining demand grows.
One of the most compelling use cases McNamara highlights is the rise of “digital dining halls,” where all orders are placed through mobile apps or kiosks and picked up exclusively from lockers. These spaces have no traditional ordering counter and highly efficient kitchens.
With more than 60 campuses already using Apex lockers, she adds that no two deployments look the same – each tailored to campus culture, scale, and student behavior.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
Don't miss the smart locker demo at the 8:10 point in the video
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello there and welcome to Campus ID News Chats. I'm publisher of Campus ID News, Chris Corum.
Chris: Today we're going to talk about smart lockers and joining me is Ashley McNamara, the vice president of global marketing for Apex, which is a smart locker solution leader in a lot of markets including higher ed. Can you walk us through your smart locker offering and what it brings to campus?
Ashley: Sure. You know, students these days are on the go. They're always on their phone. Campuses are also progressing with mobile ordering and using platforms that allow students to order ahead, whether that's in a retail dining or even in regular dining halls.
They expect convenience, personalization, technology.
What we can do is we offer smart locker pickup solutions. From that ordering process that they're ordering on a mobile app to then pick up in the dining facilities, it's all digital for them. There's no wait time. It's predictable.
They know when their order's ready, but on so many campuses where they're placing the order, grabbing it and heading off to the next class or even just heading to hang out with their friends a little bit longer. It gives them that convenience of being able to pick up as quick as they can and get on their way.
Chris: Tell us about the configurations that are available? I know you've got a new one, but kind of walk through like what's a standard configuration. What are options and things?
Ashley: As we as we start, when engaging with campuses, we look at order volumes? What is that standard peak time? What does that look like? This lets us make sure we get enough of the compartments to handle this?
We see orders sit in the compartments, maybe four- or five-minutes max. They're moving through them quickly. We look at all those orders and kind of figure out, okay, you need seven compartments or you have a big system, you need 23 compartments.
We look at all that data and then figure out what the right hardware is for that. We have solutions that sit indoors or that can sit outdoors if you don't want your students coming in the building.
Then we have a new solution that we launched last year that is just starting to trickle on to college campuses where it's all modular. There are different sizes of compartments, and they can build out a structure of what they need. It gives them an opportunity to grow more compartments as their food service dining grows.
Chris: Great. How about how about some ideal or interesting use cases? I always love talking about ghost kitchens, because it's such a cool concept. But what are the things like that are interesting?
Ashely: Absolutely. We've called them digital dining halls. As you walk in, there's no counter, you can't walk up and place an order.
Everything is either through a mobile app or through a kiosk that's there for maybe your visitors on campus, parents that are on campus, or students that don't want another app on their phone. They can go up, place their order digitally, and it gives them a timeline of when that order is going to be ready.
Then it's placed in the locker for pickup. So that's their only option to be able to pick up.
We've seen a number of these launching this school year – rebuilding these facilities, where they're putting different concepts at each bank, and you're students place orders before they leave class, go grab it, go sit and converse with friends. They're not having to stand wait in line to place the order, stand to wait to get it to pick it up, it's all ready to go for them when they get that notification that their order is ready.
That's a great way for campuses to utilize this, it's all then integrated with their mobile apps.
As we work with different providers, we can integrate to the systems you're already using on campus. It's additive, it's easy for the team, then to be able to do that.
What we're seeing in these digital dining halls, too, is a super-efficient kitchen, to where they're able to move these orders through really, really quickly, and potentially boost transactions and revenues too.
Chris: From the tech stack perspective of the campus, how does this play with the campus card and the payment system or the dining points, declining balance, things like that? And do you work with multiple mobile ordering apps?
Ashley: Yeah, honestly, we could integrate with whatever you're utilizing on campus. We have existing integrations with Grubhub campus, Transact Mobile, Tacit, any of these mobile platforms that campuses are already utilizing. They work with the campus cards, so we fit right into that whole ecosystem of partners to make it one seamless for the student, but two super easy on the back end for the school.
Chris: Okay, great. How many campuses today?
Ashley: We're over 60 campuses now. I think what the fun thing about that is no two of them are the same. They all have applied the solutions in different ways. They've utilized different marketing tactics, configurations, and branding to be able to bring this as part of life on campus.
Chris: That's number is up a lot from when we talked last time. You had a good year and a half or something like that.
Ashley: Yeah, I think it's becoming something that a lot of schools use this for getting students on campus. Think about as you're taking a high school senior through a campus and you walk through the dining facility and they see this super cool technology to be able to pick up their orders.
The tours are talking about it like it's an enhancement to the things that happening on campus. It’s similar to the robots, the robots are super cool.
We're a nice complement to that, to where it's all this new technology that's on campuses that's drawing students in, giving them something convenient, something they can continue to go back to that's reliable.
And that's just fun to utilize.
Chris: We’ve got listeners who will be from small schools and we got with listeners who will be from really large institutions. Can you give me an example of a small deployment and a large deployment and if that's capable and possible for both?
Ashley: One of our earliest schools that we worked with is Rider University. They had some unused kitchen space, and they didn't have a place for a front of house. So, they built the lockers as a big bank in this digital dining hall, but it was also bringing in a Jersey Mike's brand to campus. The way that students utilize it is they can only order through the Grubhub app to place the orders for Jersey Mike's and pick up through the lockers.
One of the one of the interesting things we saw was a huge spike in orders from before that concept was there to when it was there with the same number of students. They're seeing the convenience of it.
The dining hall is set up so you walk in, grab it, and walk right back out again, or go the opposite direction and go sit and have a nice conversation with your friends. That whole concept of marrying, the mobile ordering and the automated pickup with the national brand worked really well for that small campus.
As we look at big campuses, they're doing a variety of different things. We've got some schools that put our solutions at each retail concept. If you order from Einstein's Bagels, you pick up at Einstein's Bagels, and it's kind of that same repeatable process that they've done before.
We're also seeing a lot of the larger campuses deploy these digital dining halls.
They are working through how do I how do I feed lots of students in a really great, efficient, and convenient way that is efficient for the kitchen and fun for the student.
I'm notified throughout the entire process, and at the end, it's ready for me when I'm ready for my order.
Chris: All right, thanks, Ashley. Let's take a look. Can you give us a quick demo?
Ashley: Sure. [Ashley presents a demo of the lockers]
Chris: How about if somebody wants to talk to you about the product?
Ashley: You can go to apexorderpickup.com. There's a contact us form or you can email info at apexorderpickup dot com and somebody will get back to you pretty quickly.
A new California law will require public schools serving grades 7 through 12, community colleges, California State University campuses, and University of California campuses to add an LGBTQ youth hotline number to student IDs and campus cards. Assembly Bill 727, signed into law in October 2025, will go into effect on July 1, 2026.
The goal is to make support resources easier to find during moments of crisis. While the approach has prompted questions from some stakeholders, the bill is designed as a an update to existing student ID requirements rather than an overhaul of school mental health policy.
The idea behind the requirement is straightforward. If a student is struggling, they do not need to search online or ask for help to find support. The information is readily available to them, at a moment when privacy and immediacy matter.
Over the years, legislative efforts to add hotlines to campus cards often failed to consider the impacts on card offices and other ID issuers.
Research consistently shows that LGBTQ youth experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation than their peers. Lawmakers supporting AB 727 say that increasing the visibility of targeted crisis resources can help reduce barriers to care, especially for students who may be reluctant to seek help through traditional school channels.
Opponents argue this is an example of the state forcing its way into issues that should be handled in the home.
Assembly Bill 727 is not the first legislation to impact hotline information printed on school IDs and higher ed campus cards in California.
In 2019, it was required that student IDs include the telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and the following year, adding the National Domestic Violence Hotline or a local alternative was mandated.
This newly passed legislation adds another required addition to campus cards – the Trevor Project’s phone number and text line.
“Commencing July 1, 2026, a public or private institution of higher education that issues student identification cards shall have printed on either side of the student identification cards The Trevor Project’s 24 hours per day, 7 days per week suicide hotline that is available through both of the following options:
Telephone number: 1-866-488-7386.
Text line, which can be accessed by texting START to 678-678.”
The Trevor Project is a national nonprofit organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Founded in 1998, the organization offers support through a 24/7 phone hotline, text messaging, and online chat services.
Surprisingly, there is no mention of the addition of The Trevor Project details on digital IDs or mobile credentials.
It is named after Trevor, the fictional teenage character in the Academy Award–winning short film Trevor. The film portrays a young gay teen struggling with isolation and self-harm. The film’s creators were struck by how few resources existed at the time for LGBTQ youth in crisis. The nonprofit was created in response, with the aim of ensuring that young people facing similar challenges would have a place to turn for help.
Over the years, legislative efforts to add hotlines to campus cards often failed to consider the impacts on card offices and other ID issuers.
At times, language in proposed bills neglected to address key issues such as whether the institution would be required to replace already-issued IDs or whether they could use an existing supply of preprinted card stock rather than discarding it.
This bill seems to address these issues in a reasonable way for issuers and campus card programs. First, it states that the requirement only applies to IDs issued in the future. Second, it specifically allows the use of, “a supply of unissued pupil or student identification cards that do not comply with the requirements … until that supply is depleted.”
Surprisingly – though crisis hotlines have been added to mobile credentials in the past – the new California law does not mention the addition of The Trevor Project details on digital IDs.
Supporters of AB 727 emphasize that the bill focuses on access and visibility. Mental health crises often occur outside of school hours, when students may not have immediate access to counselors or trusted adults. In those moments, having a clearly printed support number can remove hesitation and save time.
The law does not ask schools to provide counseling services, adjust curriculum, or promote specific organizations beyond listing crisis contact information.
Because schools already include the 988-hotline on student IDs, compliance does not require major operational changes. The law does not ask schools to provide counseling services, adjust curriculum, or promote specific organizations beyond listing crisis contact information.
As with many education-related policies, AB 727 has raised questions about boundaries and implementation. Some stakeholders have expressed concern about referencing a specific external organization on student IDs, while others have raised broader questions about parental involvement and online safety.
Supporters respond that the law is narrowly focused on crisis intervention and mirrors how schools already share national mental health resources. They argue that ensuring students can quickly access help during emergencies outweighs potential drawbacks.
Higher ed institutions struggle to attract and maintain staff, but the auxiliary service department at the University of Utah is taking a clever approach, offering cost-effective on-campus housing for employees.
This spring, the institution-owned Sunnyside Apartments is opening a new building, and staff are eligible to live there. Originally intended to house graduate students and students with families, Sunnyside now has three buildings that are also available for employees.
The location is just minutes from the main University of Utah campus. This lets employee residents save even more by using their mobile UCard to dine or order meals from on-campus venues. They can also use the free shuttle service to campus, reducing fuel and parking expenses.
Rent includes all utilities, high-speed internet, cable TV, free laundry, and on-site maintenance. These services can save residents an average of $500 or more per month.
In addition to the new building, Sunnyside is opening of a state-of-the-art childcare facility to serve children of both students and employees.
Employees can choose from a range of floor plans, including studios as well as 1, 2, and 3-bedroom units.
Rent includes all utilities, high-speed internet, cable TV, free laundry, and on-site maintenance. It is estimated that these included services can save residents an average of $500 or more per month compared to traditional rental options.
Monthly rent is comparable or lower than Salt Lake City averages, according to Zillow and Apartments.com estimates. Couple that with the package of included fee-free services, and it becomes a very attractive housing option.
Monthly rental rates are:
Amenities and benefits for residents include:
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, Brian Ashley, VP of Enterprise Sales at AccessNsite, details the company’s access control solutions, agnostic approach, and key higher ed clients.
AccessNsite focuses on unifying access control across campus, integrating seamlessly with existing enterprise systems such as ERP, time and attendance, and transaction systems/identity management platforms.
At Ave Maria, we replaced all the readers on the wall with Allegion, and we also serve as the university's campus card solution –and they are mobile-ready today.
“Because we're agnostic, we can actually step in and take over other platforms you may currently have without having to replace hardware, software, and other systems,” says Ashley.
This allows them to support a mix of readers, locksets, and backend systems already on the campus as well as introduce new options. The system supports hardware from manufacturers including Allegion, HID, Dormakaba, ASSA ABLOY, and others.
Ashley highlights the University of Houston as a prime example of AccessNsite’s ability to modernize access control without costly rip-and-replace projects.
Houston previously operated Lenel access control alongside Transact and used a mix of Allegion and ASSA readers.
“We transformed that whole system without ripping and replacing any of the current intelligent lock sets,” Ashley says. Today, the system supports more than 18,000 active doors serving over 75,000 students per semester. Transactions and identity management is now handled by Atrium.
A project at Ave Maria University in Florida showcases AccessNsite’s ability to execute fast, campus-wide transitions. In under six weeks, the company transitioned more than 700 doors and delivered a mobile-ready campus card solution.
“We replaced all the readers of the wall with Allegion, all of the lock sets are live, intelligent lock sets in the dormitories,” he says.
Ashley notes that for Ave Maria, AccessNsite also serves as the campus card solution, and they are mobile-ready today.
To watch the full interview, click the link at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi, I'm Brian Ashley with AccessNsite, subsidiary of Unified Door Hardware and Security.
We've been, as a platform, around for over 30 years. One of our main objectives is to get the best access control solution into higher education, as well as Department of Defense, commercial, and other type platforms.
We know how to operate with other platforms, whether it be ERP, personnel base, anything that has to do with time and attendance, and also a full campus door solution.
AccessNsite is an agnostic platform. That means that we don't really care if you're utilizing Allegion readers, HID, Farpoint, Wave, any of them.
That being said, it also goes to the lock sets and all of the backend platform.
Because we're agnostic, we can actually step in and take over other platforms you may currently have without having to replace hardware, software, and other systems.
Also, at a very cost effective standpoint.
So, from a Dormakaba, Assa Abloy, Allegion, all of their intelligent lock sets, wall readers, all of them work currently within our system, whether you have a mix or you want to have one solidified system.
An example of our unification, and from an enterprise standpoint, is University of Houston. University of Houston was using a platform called Lenel.
They also had Transact Blackboard on the backend for a long time, and they had Allegion lock sets, as well as Assa lock sets.
We transform that whole system without ripping and replacing any of the current intelligent lock sets. We were able to keep current lock sets in place, current readers on the wall, still give them mobile solution ready solution, and transition all of their doors.
Today, we have over 18,000 active doors on that campus, with over 75,000 students per semester.
That is all tied in directly with Atrium. We do not manage the identity management, Atrium does, they do a great job of it.
We're not trying to do that project, we could, but, because we are partnered with them in a really great integration standpoint, it's really working out exceptionally well.
Another example is Ave Maria, which is in Ave Maria, Florida, next to Naples.
We transitioned over 700 doors at that campus in under a month and a half. We replaced all the readers of the wall with Allegion, all of the lock sets are live, intelligent lock sets in the dormitories, and we are the campus card solution there, and they are absolutely mobile-ready today.
We are very unique in the space. While we have dealers, we also have a direct relationship with our end users.
We are the tier one tech support. We use our dealer partnerships to make sure that installations and integrations go smoothly with local tech support.
When you call in tech support, you're actually talking to the manufacturer.
We'd love to talk to you. We look at this relationship as consultant. We like to sit at the table and make sure we find your best, most effective way to spend your money.
And as we are what's called a commercial hardware distributor, you will never pay more than what we provide to our dealers at the end of the day for lock sets and for service.
At Ohio State University, a multi-year project to modernize physical security is underway. It will replace security system software, thousands of door access readers of different makes and models, and credentials as well.
Ohio State is a perfect example that higher education has never stood still when it comes to access control. Credential formats evolve, expectations shift, and campuses must balance security and cost across thousands of doors.
Few people have witnessed the evolution of campus security as closely as Jeff Koziol, Business Development – Higher Education at Allegion.
The “AD” stands for adaptable. Rather than locking institutions into a single credential type or security system, the AD family was designed to evolve alongside campus strategies.
“I’ve been around long enough to see campuses migrate from managing doors with pin codes to managing them with mag stripe, then prox and later contactless,” Koziol says. “And now, of course, we’re in the mobile credential age.”
He estimates he has lived through five iterations of credentialing on college campuses, each bringing improved functionality but also a familiar pain point. Historically, every major shift required ripping out and replacing readers and locks across exterior doors, residence halls, offices, and academic spaces.
“Every time a campus moved from pin codes to mag, or mag to prox … or contactless … or mobile, they had to forklift all their locks,” he explains. “That is a very expensive endeavor.”
That repeated cycle of reinvestment drove Allegion to rethink how electronic locks should be designed – less as fixed hardware and more as adaptable infrastructure.
At Ohio State, the process to upgrade their offline Allegion AD250 locks to online wireless AD400 locks took several steps. Step 1: Remove the faceplate from the interior side of the door. Step 2: Add a wireless board to bring the lock online. Step 3: Remove the mag stripe module from the exterior side of the door. Step 4: Add the contactless/NFC module to the exterior side. Step 5: Update the lock's software to let it know it is now an online device.
The result of that thinking is Allegion’s AD lock platform, where “AD” stands for adaptable. Rather than locking institutions into a single credential type or security system, the AD family was designed to evolve alongside campus strategies.
The electronic lock is designed to extend access control economically, particularly in interior spaces, but they can support exterior use cases when needed.
Rather than forcing campuses into proprietary ecosystems, AD locks integrate with a wide range of access control platforms.
“They work with Lenel, Genea, CBORD, TouchNet, Software House – fill in the blank with the 50 or 60 other access control systems out there,” Koziol says.
By swapping out components and updating firmware, the lock can go from one configuration to another. You keep the physical lock, thus preserving your investment and removing the need to rip and replace.
The AD platform comes in three primary configurations:
Where ‘adaptable’ comes into play is that campuses can migrate between these configurations without replacing the lock body itself.
By swapping out interior components and updating firmware, the lock can go from one configuration to another. You keep the bulk of the physical lock, thus preserving the original investment and removing the need to rip and replace.
Few campuses better illustrate the value of adaptability than The Ohio State University.
In a NACCU webinar, Josh Bodnar, Director of Ohio State’s BuckID program, explains that when he started at the institution, the access control environment reflected years of building renovations and technology transitions.
“When I arrived in 2019, we had a mixture of electronic and other locks, especially in the residence halls,” he says.
At that time, the university had 2,300 Allegion AD250 offline locks managed through a Vanderbilt software system. They also had 2,500 Best BASIS G locks controlled via a dedicated instance of Lenel OnGuard.
A separate online security system from Transact Door Access managed the perimeter doors in residence halls and student life buildings. This system supported 400 Allegion AD400 locks.
The locks were originally installed more than a decade ago. Instead of writing off that investment, Ohio State leveraged the AD platform’s modular design to replace the ‘guts’ and extend the lifespan of the hardware.
Even with this large number of electronic locks, mechanical locks were and are still widespread. Approximately 4,000 individual locks using brass keys exist on residential suite and room doors.
Credential technology was also in transition.
When Bodnar arrived, credentials were almost exclusively magnetic stripe, but the institution has steadily moved toward contactless NFC cards with an eye toward mobile credentials.
One of the most impactful changes at Ohio State has been the upgrade of its offline AD250 locks to online AD400s. During summer 2025, all 2,300 were upgraded.
The locks were originally installed more than a decade ago as part of a major construction project. Instead of writing off that investment, Ohio State leveraged the AD platform’s modular design to replace the ‘guts’ and extend the lifespan of the hardware.
“We were able to leverage the adaptability and were hoping to get another 10 years out of that investment,” says Bodnar.
The work was done in-house rather than outsourced, saving the university $1 million in labor costs compared to hiring contractors to update the 2,300 locks.
Over the summer, Ohio State installed wireless infrastructure across eight buildings, upgraded the locks, added communication kits, and deployed new readers. While most students already had tap-enabled cards, some upper-class students required re-carding to ensure compatibility.
“That was a fun adventure for my team over the summer,” he says. “But it was a much easier lift because we could use the Mr. Potato Head nature of the lock to quickly change components.”
Crucially, the work was done in-house rather than outsourced. Bodnar estimates that decision saved the university $1 million in labor costs compared to hiring contractors to update the 2,300 locks.
When the upgrade was complete and all locks were online, Ohio State was able to shut down one of its legacy security software platforms – its Vanderbilt system.
Ohio State’s modernization extends beyond hardware to its software environment as well. The university has been migrating the student life access control system from Transact Door Access to Lenel S2. The goal is to bring all entry points managed by BuckID into a unified, online access control platform.
According to Bodnar, they moved the last readers from the old Transact system and onto Lenel S2 Netbox just before the end of 2025.
With the AD250-to-AD400 upgrade complete, Ohio State is already seeing the benefits of mobile-ready infrastructure.
Mobile support was baked into the deployment from the beginning.
We made sure the new locks were set up to read both our plastic card and our pre-deployment mobile credential. Every one of those 2,300 locks already have our mobile keys.
“At the time we installed them, we made sure that those locks were set up to read both our plastic card and our pre-deployment mobile credential,” he explains. “We have mobile keys already, so every one of those 2,300 locks already have it.”
That puts Ohio State well on the way toward its goal of making all student room doors tap- and mobile-ready.
The next phase however – replacing the remaining Best BASIS G locks with AD400s – will be more complex.
This will require taking a legacy lock off a door and installing a totally new piece of hardware. They plan to pilot the approach in a single building before scaling the effort across the remaining 2,500 doors.
Down the road, they are evaluating how best to handle older buildings that still rely on brass keys.
For new construction and major renovations, Ohio State’s direction is clear.
“Everything that gets built or gets renovated in student housing is going to have an online lock on the suite and room doors,” says Bodnar. “And right now that will be the AD400.”
Ohio State’s experience validates the original vision behind Allegion's AD platform. It has delivered on the promise of creating an access control infrastructure that adapts as campuses evolve.
For Allegion’s Koziol, Ohio State’s experience validates the original vision behind the AD platform. It has delivered on the promise of creating an access control infrastructure that adapts as campuses evolve.
The lesson for higher education is straightforward.
Technologies will continue to change and budgets will remain constrained, but institutions that plan now will be better positioned for what comes next.
Infrastructure that enables upgrading security software and credential technology without the need to rip and replace is the very definition of adaptable.
When the University of Alabama transitioned to a Mobile First credentialing model, physical student ID cards were largely eliminated. Students, however, still had an affinity for the plastic memento, and thus the UA commemorative was born.
Courtney Petrizzi, Communications Director for Finance & Operations at the University of Alabama, explains that the assumption was that mobile credentials would fully meet student expectations. After all, the new credentials were wildly successful on campus. Feedback from students, however, revealed something was missing.
Revenue from the commemorative card is now high enough to make up for the replacement card fees they lost in their transition to mobile credentials.
“Students still wanted a tangible piece of campus,” says Petrizzi. That desire wasn’t about access or technology, but about pride and connection. Graduates wanted something they could take home, show family, and keep as proof of accomplishment.
Rather than returning to mass issuance of physical IDs, UA created a graduate-only commemorative card. The card is intentionally non-functional – no access privileges, no embedded technology – serving purely as memorabilia.
“It’s literally just a piece of plastic that you carry around with you,” Petrizzi emphasizes. Eligibility is restricted to students who officially graduate, reinforcing its symbolic value. The card includes clear language stating it does not confer current student status, which was important for compliance and clarity.
UA partnered closely with Strategic Communications to design and brand the card appropriately, recognizing it as an external-facing item once students become graduates. This collaboration extended into marketing, with careful planning around messaging, timing, and visual consistency.
Launching the program required new operational processes, including shipping credentials for the first time. UA coordinated with its mailing services, legal team, and registrar to manage graduate lists, refunds, and quality assurance.
Marketing efforts spanned email campaigns, social media, digital signage with QR codes, bookstore partnerships, and word-of-mouth promotion through student leaders.
While early adoption was slower than expected, awareness has grown steadily.
According to Petrizzi, revenue from the commemorative card is now high enough to make up for the replacement card fees the card office lost in the transition to mobile credentials.
To watch the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
In this episode of CampusIDNews Chats, we spoke with Courtney Petrizzi, Communications Director for Finance & Operations at the University of Alabama. She detailed the institution’s launch of a commemorative card offering for graduates that did not receive a traditional campus ID card because UA now issues mobile credentials.
Here is a transcript of what she said:
Our commemorative card started when we transitioned to Mobile First. That means none of our students get issued a physical credential unless they have an ineligible device.
We thought, Mobile Card – that's it we're done. That's all the students wanted. But then we started getting feedback that students still wanted a tangible piece of campus.
They wanted to have something that they could take home with them, show their parents, show off that they were a part of the university.
We asked the students what that would look like, because we weren't going to go back to start printing all of these physical cards again. We asked the students, why do you want this memorabilia? What's the most important thing?
They said they want to show that they graduated from the University of Alabama. That's what you hold on to when you're a graduate.
That is what we decided to tie into for the commemorative card. We wanted it to be restricted to just students who have graduated from the university. That's a point of pride for us, because anybody can say that they've gone to the University of Alabama for a semester or two or a couple of years. It's a whole different story when you say, I graduated.
And I can prove it.
You can't carry your diploma around, but you can stick that right in your pocket. You can pull it out any time and have proof that I graduated. We wanted to commend that hard work and effort.
Our commemorative card is just a piece of plastic. There is nothing attached to it. There is no technology. You can't get into the library. You can't do anything with it. It's literally just a piece of plastic that you carry around with you.
On the back of our card, we have a statement saying that this does not guarantee current UA student status.
Because we have a student who had just graduated with a bachelor's, but they turn around next semester and they're going for their master's. They can't use this card for anything.
Setting up the commemorative card was super easy for us. We went to our strategic communications office. We told them what we wanted to do, why we wanted to do it, what the commemorative card was going to be, what we wanted it to look like, how we wanted to tie it into graduation for graduating students.
They took it from there. They gave us design options. We said these are the parameters, this is what we would like to see.
But what do you, as UA STRATCOM, need as a brand to send this out into the world?
It's an external card at that point, once it becomes a student graduate. So we had to get approval from strategic communications. They helped us market it.
We had to create a marketing plan to surround that.
When are we going to announce it to students? How are we going to get the outreach to the students? What are we going to tie into?
Then we had to think about the process of shipping these cards. We have never shipped any sort of credential from our office whatsoever. So this was completely new territory.
We had to get with our mailing office. We have a USPS-based service in our student center. We had to connect with them, see what the requirements were, what we had to do to get those shipped out. What the legal components were. What if their card arrives damaged? What if they don't receive their card and they pay money for it? We need to ensure that they're getting it.
So we had to talk with our legal department, work with the registrar on the statements of what we wanted to, you know, if someone didn't receive their card or it was damaged.
We also had to put in the request for the registrar's office to receive a list once graduation applications closed.
We received a list of all the students that have applied to graduate, so then we market to them.
They can start purchasing the card. They come to our office. We validate that they're on that list.
We also received another list from the registrar's office once graduation has completed, the final grades are in, we had the final say and who graduated.
We will refund students if they didn't graduate, if they had that one course that they need to finish. We let them know, we email them, we say, hey, we noticed this. We're still here for you.
If you're adding that one class, if you have any questions, if you're going to go back through, you know, another semester, this is still going to be an option for you. But right now, we are going to refund that for you.
I'm a big marketing communications person, so I was super excited to get my hands on this one.
We wanted to start with commencement, but we couldn't nail it down. That's a little tough. The real estate is very small.
But then they raised a great point. In our bookstore, they do diploma frames and alumni sweatshirts. They do all these things and they are a partner under our Enterprise Services umbrella.
I connected with their office and they let us put an ad for free graciously in their newsletter that goes out to graduating students as well saying, hey, get your memorabilia.
Get your fun diploma frame or whatever they have that they're offering. They let us put that in their materials. That was one of our biggest touch points because everybody's looking for that really cool alumni sweatshirt, right?
So when we had that in there, it was a big pull for us.
We also do email campaigns, which is typical for our office for anything we market. We reach out to the students’ university email. We do social media pushes. Not only straight from our office, but we rely on strategic communications.
Our campus partners like the bookstore, anybody who is celebrating the students for graduation, we latch on to them. That's why we love our campus partners, they didn't even question it. They said absolutely because we want to have that cohesive communication strategy across all of our areas.
We also do digital signage, which is really big for us. We put QR codes that link students directly to the online store to purchase their card.
We have UTM parameters associated with that so we know digital signage in housing was great for this. We know students are scanning like crazy, but over here in the business school, they're not really scanning.
They’re not looking at the signage, so what can we do to reach those students specifically and help grow the awareness of it.
Of course we always rely on word of mouth too. We have some of our big influencers on campus. Our capstone men and women are student leaders. We had a couple of them purchase the card organically on their own. We did not reach out to them specifically.
They purchased one on their own and when we went to pull the card I said, hey, I know him. I know that face, so I reached out and talked with that student and said, do you mind sharing this?
Is there an avenue I'm missing? He pointed out some newsletters that go out to students that I wasn't aware of, and he told me “I'm telling everybody about it. I'm showing people because a lot of students rely on that word of mouth.”
You know, they're not going to actually do it if it comes from the university. Sometimes they want to hear like, oh, my friends got this. They're all doing this. I obviously have to do it too.
Ultimately, our results were slightly disappointing at first. I'm not going to lie.
The students told us they wanted it. They said this is a need. We are so excited. But we didn't see that traction. So we were a little confused about that separation.
What we realized is when we launched – we originally started issuing community cards in 2023 – but we went Mobile First in 2020. So there was still a year of students that had a physical credential.
They didn't really have that need anymore.
Since then, we've done more marketing to the students. We've increased our digital signage. We've increased our ads that we place in the student newspaper, and things like that.
We are seeing that uptick.
I would want to sell, if we have a graduate class of 4,000, I would sell 2,000 cards, right? That's the ultimate goal.
But it's growing and letting students know that this is now a new part of the campus experience towards the end of your time at Alabama.
As we, as we evaluate that further, we're hoping that it's going to grow.
It's successful now. In one day, we sell enough cards to cover what our previous replacement cost was.
To rephrase that, we sell the commemorative cards for $50. Our replacement card fee when we had physical credentials was $35.
When I do the math and figure out how much it was in one day's time, we're getting about 40 to 50 lost card revenues.
So for us, our alumni affairs, we adore them, but we're not partnering with them at this time.
That's why our card is called the UA graduate commemorative card, instead of like the UA alumni card.
They're not involved at this time. We are looking at the opportunities for the future to maybe get them involved, but we wanted to see what the revenue was going to be.
We wanted to understand what the labor was going to be, because when you involve another department like that, especially alumni who has their own branding, their own identity, you know, they have parameters that they want to work by.
We really wanted to control this for now because we're in cards. We know what we need. We know what's going to look good. We know how the students interact with that material.
Alumni affairs, while we love them and they know our students, they don't know this industry.
The biggest student group that we've seen that love these cards so much is our online students. They don't get the same campus experience that our on-campus students do.
They don't get to come do free stuff days. They don't get to come and get the t-shirt and the swag and all the stuff that kind of is that on-campus experience.
When we launched this our UA online sent us an email saying this is awesome. This is a great way for our students to feel connected, to validate their experience.
We wanted to celebrate those students and let them have their moment as well, and say they're a part of this just because we live 10 hours away. They're part of the university, so we wanted them to have that opportunity.
We are looking for writers – either full-time or freelance – to contribute to the campus ID, transaction system, and security industry’s leading publication. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and for the right person it’s pretty stress free.
You get is to inform your higher ed peers about technology that can help them transform their campuses.
Day to day, you plan articles and work with campus administrators and vendors. Via phone, email, and video calls, you conduct interviews to create your content. After review, you publish it online, in email newsletters, and on our social media – don’t worry we have people to show you how to do all that and you will have a graphic designer and web developer there to assist.
A strong background in higher ed, aux services, card programs, and security is equally – or more – important than journalism experience.
We travel to a select number of fun industry conferences and vendor meetings each year, but for the most part you work from home.
Creativity is key. We want you to help us grow and make CampusIDNews better.
If you are interested in freelance opportunities, we also contract writers for individual articles or a fixed number per month – say one per week or two per month, whatever works with your schedule.
Over the years, we have found that a strong background in higher ed, aux services, card programs, and security is equally – or more – important than journalism experience. Of course, you need to be a good writer, but you don’t necessarily need that experience on your resume.
If this strikes a chord with you, please shoot me an email and we can kick it around.
Best,
Chris Corum, Editor and Publisher, CampusIDNews
Campuses function like small cities, with countless departments, clubs, and organizations collecting payments for everything from event tickets to meals. According to Michael Wilson, Director of Sales at TouchNet, this complexity often leads to what he calls rogue payment points. Rogues are payment systems adopted outside of institutional oversight, and they can spell big problems for the institution.
When a campus group, club, or department takes payments in ways outside the normal institutional processes, this decreases transparency, increases the potential for fraud or mishandling of funds, and a creates a lot of work for campus treasurers.
Student clubs, for example, may use personal card readers or consumer-grade payment apps without understanding institutional requirements.
In a recent blog, Wilson says these payment points typically emerge unintentionally, as groups seek the fastest and easiest way to accept payments. However, he cautions that following the assumed path of least resistance can cost institutions in other ways, especially when convenience outweighs security, compliance, and visibility.
Wilson outlines several risks created by decentralized payment activity, starting with a lack of transparency. Student clubs, for example, may use personal card readers or consumer-grade payment apps without understanding institutional requirements. Multiply that behavior across dozens or hundreds of campus groups, and institutions quickly lose visibility into how funds are collected, stored, and transferred.
This lack of oversight also increases the risk of fraud or mishandled funds. Without standardized controls, bad actors can exploit weak points in the system, while even well-meaning staff can make costly errors.
Even a small percentage of transactions handled outside centralized systems can disproportionately increase workload and costs.
Compliance is another major concern. Rogue payment points make it difficult for institutions to meet local, state, federal, and PCI requirements. He advises campuses to inventory of payment devices, routinely inspect them, and document incident response plans.
Beyond risk, rogue payment points also create significant administrative burden. Each unique merchant setup requires its own reconciliation process, increasing labor and complexity for finance teams. Even a small percentage of transactions handled outside centralized systems can disproportionately increase workload and costs. High transaction fees from standalone payment providers further erode institutional budgets.
To combat rogue payment points, he advocates for a unified approach. “One of the best ways you can avoid the pitfalls associated with rogue payment points is to implement a unified payments platform that can work for campus organizations and merchants alike,” he writes. Centralized platforms reduce fees, streamline reconciliation, and provide consistent security and compliance across campus.
To read more, check out the full article here.
Today’s college students arrive on campus with expectations shaped by always-on technology and personalized digital experiences. Kim Pfeffer, Director of EmoryCard at Emory University, says her students expect services to be immediate, convenient, and tailored to their individual needs.
They are hyper connected, she says, and they want access to services on their own schedule, not limited by traditional business hours. At the same time, they value being recognized as individuals, with strong interests in wellness, diversity, and sustainability. For campus service providers, this creates a dual challenge: deliver seamless digital access while maintaining a human-centered approach.
At Emory, Pfeffer’s team has responded by rethinking how and where services are delivered. One key insight is that students prefer not to visit offices in person.
“Students do not like to come to our office. They would much prefer that they can get their services where they are,” Pfeffer explains.
Students do not like to come to our office. They would much prefer to get their services where they are.
To address this, EmoryCard has implemented solutions such as Fargo Connect printers in the student center, allowing students to print replacement cards on demand with remote assistance from staff.
The team also hosts spontaneous pop-up events promoted through social media, offering free replacement cards and increasing awareness in a way that feels personal and flexible. These small, creative touches help reduce friction while reinforcing a sense of connection.
From a vendor perspective, Jennifer McNeill, Director of Strategic Partnerships & Development at TouchNet, emphasized the role of partnerships in helping campuses address evolving student service delivery.
“One of the ways that we help is by having a robust network of partners that we work with,” McNeill says.
TouchNet focuses on identifying partners that support automation, sustainability, and self-service, informed by ongoing research and feedback from campuses. Together, collaboration between institutions and technology providers helps ensure that evolving student expectations translate into better, more accessible campus experiences.
To listen to the full interview, click the image at the top of this page.
TRANSCRIPT
Kim Pfeffer, Director EmoryCard, Emory University
The needs of the next generation of students are slowly adapting and changing compared to the ones of our students of today.
They're digital natives – we've all heard that said – and they have a very high expectation for things to be available to them right away and right in front of them.
They are hyper connected.
We installed Fargo Connect in our student center so students call us on a hotline, we confirm some data with them, make sure they're standing in front of the printer, and we'll deploy the card right there.
It doesn't matter where in the world someone else is, they want to be able to connect with that person. They don't want to wait, and they don't care if your business hours are eight to five. They want a full experience that is personalized to them and available at the time that they want.
But at the same time, they want you to know that they're human. They are very focused on health and wellness, diversity, global things, and sustainability. They bring a lot to the table, but they also want you to recognize them on their terms at their time.
Here are a few examples of the shift that I've seen at Emory.
Students do not like to come to our office. They would much prefer that they can get their services where they are.
One thing we have done – we installed a Fargo Connect solution in our student center.
What a student can do, because they don't want to come to our space, is call us on a hotline. We confirm some data with them, make sure they're standing in front of the printer, and we'll deploy the card right there.
That way they can run right downstairs and get their lunch or get off to their next class or what have you.
We're trying to find small ways to meet them where they are.
Another example that we do that's really fun actually, it's just a cool way to get awareness out about our office, is that we will have a pop-up and it'll be find one of the members of our team.
We don't have to advertise in advance, we don't have to plan far in advance, if we want to do it Wednesday and it's pouring rain, we can wait until Thursday when the weather's better.
And we just blast social media and it says, find this person from EmoryCard and get a free coupon for a replacement card. No questions asked.
It's these little things that feel a little bit more personal to them and meet them where they are.
Whenever we can come up with a new idea or try to find a potential new opportunity, I bring it to the people on my campus who I work with. If it's a dining solution, I'll go to dining, if it's an access or security solution, I'll go to that team.
We have partners that focus on those key areas like automation, like sustainability, or self-serve. Having those partners available to a campus makes those options available to them.
Just so that they know that I know what's out there, and so that way I can also say that I want to be involved when these things come up.
Because we all are in this for the students. We want to make the best experience for our students.
Jennifer McNeill, Director, Strategic Partnerships & Development, TouchNet:
I think one of the ways that we help is by having a robust network of partners that we work with.
We have partners that focus on those key areas like automation, like sustainability, or self-serve.
Having those partners available to a campus makes those options available to them, and we continue to grow those partners.
We do research by attending events like this, by connecting with peers, and getting feedback from our campuses as well. It helps us determine which partners we need to work with and that will help the campuses along.
Tim Nyblom, HID Global
Many colleges and universities seeking a transition to mobile access want a better experience for students, as well as their staff.
However, they often get a lot more. They’re finding that when they upgrade their technology, they also improve the overall traffic flow across campus, do a better job of securing their access, and make life easier for administrators. They’re also discovering that mobile can help meet their goals.
Mobile access on campus is becoming an expectation. Students and staff spend a significant amount of time at school, from the parking lot and housing to classrooms and the cafeteria. Therefore, a quick transition is important for getting to their next destination on time and without friction. Mobile access provides the easy convenience of using a mobile device or wearable for that next step – and they don’t even have to think about it.
With mobile, students are accessing the physical and digital spaces they need, such as buildings and parking gates, but also vending machines and event ticketing for games and activities. They can do this using something they likely have with them at all times — their mobile phones or wearables.
Schools have discovered how to make staff roles easier by using the cloud for physical credential management. Through easy integration and remote, over-the-air credentialing, schools can reduce costs and simplify processes for their administrators. Plus, automatic credentialing helps ensure no one can retain access beyond their authorized time.
Mobile is allowing colleges and universities to enhance security for students and staff, but also for their facilities — and their data. While students frequently lose or forget plastic cards, they keep track of their mobile devices and are faster to report issues, helping schools protect access to campus buildings. In addition, today’s encryption, communication protocols, and software are keeping data protected.
When campuses take PVC cards out of the picture, they help meet their sustainability goals — which are also important to students and staff. This means less plastic that needs to be manufactured, distributed and later disposed of. They’re also reducing their carbon footprint by cutting the space needed for printing and provisioning cards.
If you’re like most administrators, you’re likely to feel overwhelmed with the idea of converting your campus to mobile technology. Often, schools think they need to replace all their existing hardware, which is a misconception. The good news is that upgrading is easy and can be done in phases, and with technology that recognizes existing PVC cards as well as mobile devices. Or, you can choose to upgrade everything at the same time—it’s entirely up to you.
Mobile solutions can now be specifically tailored to your campus and meet you wherever your school is today. Advance one step at a time from PVC card to mobile app, from mobile app to mobile wallet, or from mobile wallet to fully integrated access control. You can improve your security and convenience, building by building, as your budget and resources allow.
Vanderbilt University near Nashville, Tennessee was facing challenges making sure the correct individuals were accessing campus facilities. At a time when the university was also planning a building expansion project, they wanted to upgrade to a new system for identity management and access control. The result was mobile credentialing that is currently providing flexibility and convenience, from buildings to laundry rooms. See how Vanderbilt upgraded to mobile while still keeping their existing reader infrastructure.
Click here to read the full article here.
The future for colleges and universities is mobile. And while many are already making the switch, you don’t have to do everything at once. Start with a conversation to learn more about the benefits for your school, but also what the upgrade process looks like specifically for your campus. Ask questions and request examples or case studies. With all the flexible options available, just remember that you can start small, but it’s important to start now. Learn more about Mobile Access with HID, then start a conversation with our team of experts: https://na.hidglobal.com/higher-education.
Mobile solutions can now be specifically tailored to your campus and meet you wherever your school is today. Advance one step at a time from PVC card to mobile app, from mobile app to mobile wallet, or from mobile wallet to fully integrated access control. You can improve your security and convenience, building by building, as your budget and resources allow.
